1.—Technical Field
The present disclosure is related to the field of out-of-band management in networks. More specifically, the present disclosure is related to providing alternatives to network controller side band interface(NC-SI) used for out-of-band management of devices such as servers, and L2/L3 switches coupled to a network.
2.—Description of Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use similar to financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Current state-of-the-art out-of-band management systems such as a service provider having a server, and L2/L3 switches, use a network controller (NC) that conforms to sideband interface (SI), or NC-SI specifications. A NC-SI compatible NC provides a standardized electrical and logical sideband interface to connect the NC to a band management controller (BMC). NC-SI compatible NCs allow network access to a host CPU via a system bus using a high speed peripheral interconnect such as PCI Express (PCIe). A sideband electrical interface in the NC-SI includes a Reduced Media Independent Interconnect (RMII). A sideband logical interface in the NC-SI includes messages defined in the NC-SI specification. However, use of NC-SI compatible NCs in an out-of-band management design is costly and requires the implementation of dedicated software. Furthermore, state-of-the-art NC-SI compatible NCs lack the capacity to handle denial of service (DOS) attacks and are poorly configured for firewall implementation.
What is needed is an alternative to NC-SI compatible NCs for out-of-band management without relying on expensive hardware that requires special software installation. What is also needed is an out-of-band management system that provides network security and a defense against DOS attacks.